A Break In the Routine
by HillBot
Summary: Zoro feels trapped in his own life. Sanji rescues him.


Title: A Break In The Routine

Pairing: Zoro x Sanji

Disclaimer: I like cats... Oh yeah and One Piece? Not mine.

His life here has become very routine.

He wakes up every morning with the sun and goes to train out on deck. He pauses for breakfast and the shitty-cook yells the same thing at him everyday. Something about proper hygiene and his kitchen, but he's not really sure. He always stops listening about three words in. Then, food he no longer has to fight for is placed in front of him and he eats it without a word.

Sometimes he helps with dishes and sometimes he doesn't.

He goes back out on deck to train some more and then take a nap before lunch. He doesn't have to worry that there will be no food for the rest of the day (unless Luffy got into the supplies again), and it's a strange feeling. Before, when he was still a bounty hunter, he was never promised two meals in a row.

He's not sure he'll ever be completely used to having everything handed to him on a silver platter. Even unwavering friendships are given to him without a second thought. Trust that he'd never known existed is now given to everyone aboard the ship. He used to sleep with his back against a wall, swords never far from him. Now, after seeing the way Luffy and Usopp fall all over each in their hammocks, he's been drifting away from the wall, feeling safe enough around his nakama to rest with his back to them now. Sometimes he even pulls Chopper into his hammock with him when the reindeer has had a nightmare.

Sanji's call for lunch usually wakes him up but, if it doesn't, a size twelve to the face does. He goes and eats then returns to the deck for more training and another nap.

He still kind of misses the hunt. Everything in his life used to be made on snap decisions. He used to hop ships and sail from island to island with men he'd only just met. He'd walk around with a stack of bounty's tucked in his haramaki not knowing where he'd end up next. Now the roles are reversed and he is the one being hunted.

Sometimes he wishes he was still on his own. His captain is great and he'd follow him to the edge of the world if that's what the boy asked, but sometimes all he wants is a little peace and quiet. It's a tough commodity to come by on this ship what with all of Usopp's exploding experiments and Nami screaming at Luffy to leave her mikan alone. Whenever it actually is quiet, Robin is there and she still makes him a little uneasy.

Sometimes he just wants to get away, if only for a little while.

He aspires to become the world's greatest, but sometimes this shared dream of his is more like a weight tied around his neck, always threatening to drag him down beneath the waves. He gets lost in his training sometimes, so focused on those hawkish eyes that he doesn't realize that everyone else has already gone to bed. He wonders what it would be like to live as a normal citizen on some small, far-off unheard of island where he would teach children the way of the sword. The more he thinks about it, the more farfetched it sounds. Crazier than the dream he has now. He's wanted by the world government, there's no way he could get cozy and settle down.

It's not as if he doesn't like his new life as a pirate, he used to think they were a careless bunch filled with dishonor and stupidity but now he sees they live every moment as their last, or at least the Mugiwara's do. That's the kind of life he likes, the only way to live it to the fullest in his opinion. But days at sea with no island in sight become very tiring. Sure there's the unexpected marine attack every now and then, but it's just not enough anymore. Even his regular fights with Sanji are starting to feel rehearsed. He feels stuck in his own skin.

Maybe Sanji feels it too, because one day the shitty-cook calls him into the galley, shoves him hard against the closed door and kisses him. And now his entire routine life has been shaken, kicked and thrown around until he can't figure out which way is up.

_Now that's more like it._


End file.
